South Seoul (South Korea) Little League won the 2018 Little League Baseball World Series International Region Championship by outlasting Japan’s Kawaguchi Little League, 2-1, Saturday afternoon at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.
The Asia-Pacific Champions, now International Champs, pushed across two runs in the bottom of the first inning, as clean-up hitter Ji Hyung Choi homered and Soo Ho Choi rapped a run-scoring double.
J.H. Choi and Ye Jun Kim made the lead stand up by stifling Japan’s bats, scattering five hits and allowing only a single tally in the fifth inning. Choi went 4 2/3 innings, allowing one run on three hits, striking out seven and walking zero. Yeong Hyeon Kim threw 1 1/3 innings in relief.
Shisei Fujimoto took the mound loss for Japan. He surrendered two runs on three hits over five innings, striking out eight, and walking zero.
The victory earned South Seoul Little League a spot in the Little League Baseball World Series Championship game in the league’s first-ever trip to the World Series. The International Region Champions will face Hawaii’s Honolulu Little League, which won the United State Championship on Saturday.
The World Championship Game at Lamade Stadium is scheduled for 3 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday afternoon.
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